The Blue Jays just got better. This is now a common weekly theme for the team. First it was Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes, then it was Melky Cabrera, and now R.A. Dickey is headed to Canada. They’ve lost a number of prospects to get...

Rob Abruzzese joined Stacey and I this evening, and we found quite a bit to talk about, covering everything from the R.A. Dickey trade to the unusual offseason the entire A.L. East is having, and finally covering quite a bit of what’s going on with the Yankees before the Hot Stove season takes its traditional lull during the Christmas holiday. Enjoy!

I guess I’ll have to reconsider my relatively bearish take on the Blue Jays now, huh? After putting the rest of the league on notice by acquiring pretty much ever good player on the Marlins’ roster other than Giancarlo Stanton, Toronto has continued their push for the crown in 2013 by acquiring R.A. Dickey, the 2012 National League Cy Youn winner, from the Mets for a package that will include their best two remaining prospects (according to Baseball America’s prospect rankings). Dickey figures to slot in with Josh Johnson atop Toronto’s suddenly revamped starting rotation, and will likely be enough to get the coveted label of preseason favorites in the East.

First of all, the Mets are basically taking an offer they can’t refuse. Dickey has been great for the past three seasons, but he is 38 years old, and even with the unique aging curve of knuckleballers extending him may not be in the best interests in the Mets, a franchise that’s probably still at least a year or two away from being serious contenders.…

Baseball is always going to be a game of volatility. Players are going to go into streaks of making outs, and then all of the sudden start hitting again, before they stop for a little bit. Luck plays an underrated factor in the way the game is played. However, some players are able to moderate...

A couple of weeks ago I responded to this piece on Marvin Miller’s legacy published at The Economist, and last Thursday the author, Dan Rosenheck, responded in the comment section of my post. I meant to get to this last Friday, but since I didn’t and since the response is somewhat lengthy, I figured I’d devote a new post to answering Mr. Rosenheck’s counterpoints. Those points are bulleted, so I’ll respond in turn:

You argue that a system of perpetual one-year deals would have reduced overall compensation. This is counterfactual, so there’s no way to prove it one way or the other. I know Miller thought this, but I’m not convinced that it’s true. On one hand, you wouldn’t have 7-year albatross deals. On the other, however, if teams didn’t have to worry about paying for decline years, peak Pujols or A-Rod might have been able to sign for $40 million or more a season.

I suppose it’s true enough that you can’t “prove” a counterfactual, but I would just note that for my assumption to be incorrect we have to completely suspend the law of supply and demand.…

Brett Gardner has the exact profile of a Yankee fan favorite. He’s home grown. He plays hard every day. He’s a bit of an underdog because his skill set is undervalued in today’s game. He had a breakout season in 2010 when he hit .277/.383/.379 and managed a 112 wRC+ while swiping 47...

Because things can always get worse, apparently the Yankees have seriously considered a trade to acquire The First National Bank of Vernon Wells from the Angels. That comes via Ken Rosenthal, who reports that the two teams discussed Wells at the Winter Meetings, though nothing is close. Both Rosenthal and Jon Heyman report, however, that any trade would be contingent upon the Angels eating the vast majority of the $42 million remaining on Wells’ albatross of a contract.

All things considered, I suppose there are worse ways to go about getting a right-handed hitter to play the outfield. For as terrible as Wells has been in his two season with the Angels, he’s been okay against left-handed pitchers, though there’s some huge variance to those numbers. He whacked opposite hand pitcher to the tune of a .280/.320/.531 line with a 134 wRC= back in 2011, but then hit just .227/.298/.373 (88 wRC+) last season, albeit in just 84 plate appearances.

I guess the theory here is that he could come super cheap and that a move out of Anaheim and into a hitter friendly stadium could improve his numbers a bit, but I wouldn’t really count on it, and I’d be pretty loathe to commit myself to having him on the bench for two seasons even if the Angels are paying most of the tab.…

Ah, the language of the offseason rumor mill. What does it mean to be “quietly interested” in someone, and how does that differ than just being interested in them? I’m not sure, really, other than that I guess it’s different than making sure everyone knows that a certain player is someone you really want to acquire in the way that the Dodgers did with Greinke or that the Yankees did with C.C. Sabathia back in 2008.

Anyway, yesterday Nick Cafardo reported that “some believe” the Yankees are “quietly interested” in Michael Bourn, and could move in to sign him if the market for him continues to not really develop as a lot of people thought it would. That is, if they feel like they’re getting a bargain. I can understand that, but frankly I don’t really see where Bourn fits into the roster at the moment. He’s an okay average hitter with no power and good plate discipline who adds a lot of value with his superb defense and base running skills.…

This past weekend, two slightly odd things about the Yankees and their outfield situation were reported. After they inked Ichiro Suzuki to a two year deal (something I’m not entirely a fan of, but that’s really neither here nor there), we learned that the Yankees had talked to the Angels about a...